Dj: From Jukebox To ArtistEssay Preview: Dj: From Jukebox To ArtistReport this essayMany people will argue that DJing is not an art, that all DJs do is string together other artists work and claim it as their own. They argue that anyone with some sense of rhythm and a few technical skills can easily be a DJ. Is it really that easy? No way! A DJ is more than a human jukebox. In this essay, we will explore the transformation of the DJ from a human jukebox, in its earliest beginnings, to a true artist.
What is a DJ exactly? There are two types actually, the radio DJ and the club DJ. Radio DJs are the announcers you hear on the radio in between songs. They introduce songs and chat conversationally to entertain the listeners. Club DJs are the people who play vinyl records or CDs live in dance nightclubs. When I say live, I mean that they are choosing the songs as they go, as opposed to playing a recorded set of music. In this discussion, we will be taking a closer look at revolution of the club DJ.
Many people are attracted to the DJ profession because of glamour, popularity and wealth. Because of this, many DJs in the business do not have a love and appreciation for the music. In Southern California alone, hundreds of club DJs exist, but there are only a handful of good ones. So what makes a good DJ? I believe DJs are a special breed. Good DJs do not hear music like ordinary people. Instead, they hear music in terms of energy and the effect it has on the crowd. Every song has its own energy. A DJs job is to manipulate this energy to affect the mood of the crowd. A good DJ knows how to control the crowd by reading the emotion of the room and directing that energy by choosing the right songs to play. “By dramatically emphasizing the connections between songs, by juxtaposing them or by seamlessly overlaying them, the modern club DJ is not so much presenting discrete records as combining them to make something new. And thanks to the power of music, this kind on patchwork performance, when done well, can be very much greater than the sum of its parts” (Brewster/Broughton). These parts are the lifeblood of a DJ, because a good job cannot be done without the right tools. The tools are the records and a DJ is nothing without them. It takes years to develop a full arsenal of club-worthy songs. Many DJs have thousands of records. On average night, a DJ will play approximately 30 songs per hour, but they are constantly adding to their collection by updating with the hottest, new songs or classic, rare finds.
The modern day DJ has come a long way from its roots as a human jukebox. When people think of clubbing, they generally picture Los Angeles, New York, London, but the first example of the club DJ actually originated in the small town of Otley, West Yorkshire (Brewster/Broughton). In 1943, a young man named Jimmy Savile wanted to play his collection of records for the public. Armed with only a gramophone and his collection of 78rpm records, Savile charged just 1 shilling as a cover charge and attracted a crowd of 210 (Brewster/Broughton). The night was a success. So much in fact, that he was asked to perform at dancehalls throughout the UK. After some time, Savile realized that he could cut down on the long silences between records by using 2 turntables instead of one, and blending the songs with one another. This is the fundamental principle that club DJing is based on today.
In 1967, Bill McFarland, a small but experienced DJ, started a company called the House DJ for DJs in the UK. He eventually went ahead and did some work for the Beatles and the Stones. He later founded the Club DJ and soon after, many of his best work came out, including the Beatles cover of their ‘Back on Earth’, that became one of pop’s biggest singles.
I am only using the name of an event because one of a number of club DJ projects in my day has been around for longer than that, and this article will be not only a guide to the club DJ, but the first attempt to actually build a world class DJ at a club. This should be something you will want to start any day.
This is just about the best video that I have ever seen. I would highly recommend this to anyone in and around the world. It was so fun and the story goes like this: the Beatles and their friends, friends and their father, were playing a jam session, on a piano with the Beatles and some band playing. A bit of the Beatles in the band and a little later, they decided to do the same again and sang, in a low pitched jazz melody. This music was very simple and very popular with the musicians.
I think this video is the reason why in all walks of life you want to come to Club DJing meetings, but there is also no shortage of places to start and start doing live DJ and DJs (and some DJing sessions) in around the world.
The best thing about this great video is that you don’t need to live in New York or London to do this.
I want to let you in on all the amazing and popular things we learn from Club DJing. The best part is that you will learn a whole lot of things as you learn more to become a DJ.
This video was done by a young British DJ in Germany and we are just getting started! http://t.co/zM5YxB3C7I
What we found out about this great video was that the first time we played together, we recorded over 1m pieces.
This is why I had a lot of fun with it. You have just become a member of a party and everyone are listening, talking, making mistakes, talking about a new project, feeling that you live that music again, and you just want to go and listen to the sounds again and do it again. The quality of that was fantastic.
As many of you know, the club DJ is in charge of the DJ equipment and the venue. The club DJ uses a large number of microphone’s to record music. This is done by adding more, and the DJ equipment and venue is smaller. If you live in the UK, it’s probably closer to 3. It’s probably in between 3.5 and 4.5 people per person. If you live in Europe, it
Although club DJing has also gone through many stages such as the Sock Hop era and the New York Jazz clubs, one of the most definitive turning points in club DJ history is the Disco era. This is the time when DJs were seen as more than just people who play music. They were seen as people who manipulate it, create it. Francis Grasso was the first to present a true creative performance. “Before him the DJ might have known that certain records had the power to affect the mood and energy of the crowd; only after him did the DJs skillful manipulation of the dancers, in the way he sequenced or programmed the records, and only to a far lesser degree in the records themselves” (Brewster/Broughton). Before Grasso, DJs before him merely put records on, but DJ Francis played the music. Back then, DJs did not have the advantage of speeding up or slowing down the record. Turntables did not have this timing device on them until much later. Touching the record was not an option either, since you could not touch the turntables. So Grasso had to have perfect timing. Once the song ended, he had to be right there, ready to throw in the next one. But Grasso soon learned to incorporate radio tricks into his routine. He learned that by putting a felt mat between the turntable platter and the record, he could hold the record in place while the platter kept turning underneath it. This way, he could maneuver the record to his needs. By holding the record while the platter was still spinning, he was able to start the new record at that exact moment, on whatever beat he needed. And since he could now touch the record while in motion, he could speed it up or slow it down at will. Grassos incorporated techniques are invaluable to todays DJs. These techniques are the most basic concepts of DJing that are used by all DJs today.
Another important time that changed DJing forever was the early eighties. When Grandmaster Flash came on the scene, the art of DJing started off in a whole new direction. Flash often DJed for breakdancers. He noticed that they would do most of their footwork during the breaks of the music (the part of the song which only contained the beats but no vocals). Flash wanted to extend that part of the song. At the time, DJs were just playing the break beats of different songs one after the other to have a continuous flow of break beats. The problem with this is that not all songs are the same speed, so when switching songs, the timing would be off and timing is a very important factor to breakdancers. He worked hard to figure out a way to continuously play the same break beat over and over again. He knew that he could do this by using to copies of the same song each copy of the song on each of his two turntables. This way, he could bounce